The tenth named storm in the western Pacific that year, Morakot spawned from an area of disturbed weather in the Philippine Sea on July 31.

Morakot reached peak intensity later that day with winds of 85 km/h (50 mph) and a minimum barometric pressure of 992 mbar (hPa; 28.29 inHg).

[nb 2] This intensity was held for several hours until less conducive atmospheric conditions slightly weakened the system; this was followed by Morakot making landfall on southern Taiwan on August 3.

Subsequently, the storm weakened and moved into the Taiwan Strait before making its final landfall near Quanzhou, China the next day.

[1][2] As atmospheric conditions remained favorable throughout the day's duration, the system organized, and was upgraded to tropical depression status by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) at 0600 UTC on July 31,[1] followed by the JTWC at 0600 UTC and Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) six hours later.

Tracking north-northwestward under the influence of a passing trough,[1] the system intensified further into a tropical storm by 0600 UTC on August 2,[3] thus receiving the name Morakot.

[1] The cyclone's northwesterly track brought the storm to a second landfall, this time near Quanzhou, China, at approximately 1000 UTC that day.

[2] Due to the storm's projected path into Taiwan, the Central Weather Bureau issued a sea and land warning on August 2.

Following the passage of the tropical storm, however, 703 cloud seeding missions were carried out in Fujian Province in order to produce enhanced artificial rainfall.

As a result of these, rainfall totals ranging from 40–60 mm (1.6–2.4 in) over a 138,500 km2 (53,500 sq mi) area were attributed to anthropologically enhanced precipitation.